At West Road Primary, our curriculum is based around the National Curriculum. We follow the Cornerstones Curriculum to ensure that all themes are cohesive, relevant and that children make great progress, whilst enjoying their learning.

Thematic Cross Curricular Approach to Learning

At West Road Primary School we address the foundation subjects of History, Geography, Art and Technology through a thematic cross curricular approach. Our theme usually also includes our Science and IT but these are also taught as discrete subjects on their own as necessary in order to cover the National Curriculum Programmes of Study.

We did a lot of research to find a curriculum that we felt suited our children and provided us with a structure of exciting and interesting themes. We finally adopted the ‘Cornerstones Curriculum’ which bases its approach on 4 corners of learning

Engage

Develop

Innovate

Express

The themes are planned on a 2 year rolling programme to take account of our mixed age classes, this ensures that the children are not taught the same knowledge even though they may stay in the same class for two years.

Examples of the these being taught during 2013-14 are ‘Remember Remember’, ‘Potions’, ‘Traders and Raiders’ and ‘Champions’.

As the New National Curriculum is introduced in September 2014 we will update our themes accordingly to meet the new expectations.

What do the Four Cornerstones look like?

During the Engage stage children will :-

have memorable first-hand experiences – for example going on a visit outside the classroom or inviting a specialist visitor into the classroom

have WOW experiences – Investigate and Discover

be introduced in exciting ways to the new topic or theme

begin initial research and set enquiry questions

have lots of opportunity to make observations

develop spoken language skills

take part in sensory activities

have a great deal of fun, allowing them to fully ‘engage’ with their new topic

During the Develop stage children will :-

dig much deeper to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of a topic across the curriculum

apply previous skills, knowledge and understanding in real life contexts

be challenged with real or imagined problems and situations to solve using knowledge and skills from the earlier stages

be inspired with imaginative and creative opportunities

have time to re-visit skills, knowledge and understanding not grasped during the develop stage

have the opportunity to take on different roles

During the Express stage children will :-

become the performers, the experts, the informers

share their achievements with others in many different ways…….parents, class mates and the community

evaluate finished products/processes

tie learning back to the beginning

celebrate

As parents you will be invited in to school to share the work that your child(ren) has been working on. This will usually be part of the ‘express’ stage of the Cornerstones stages.

The feedback so far about our new curriculum has been very positive. The children have enjoyed the exciting themes and parents have enjoyed being invited in to school to take part in the ‘express’ and sharing their child’s successes.

About Us

About West Road Primary

At West Road we put children at the heart of everything we do. We believe that every child can achieve amazing things and it is our job to deliver a rich and personalised education, unlocking doors and creating a love of learning, so that every child is empowered and has the opportunity to choose their own future.

Contact Us

West Road Primary School
West Road
Moorends
Doncaster
South Yorkshire
DN8 4LH